High Court Affirms Rejection of Miss. Prayer Law

The U.S. Supreme Court refused last week to revive a
1994 Mississippi law that authorized "voluntary" student prayers at
assemblies, sports events, and other school activities.

The high court let stand without comment rulings from lower federal
courts that found the law unconstitutional and barred it from taking
effect.

In their appeal to the Supreme Court, state officials did not stress
the merits of the law but argued instead that the plaintiffs who
challenged it lacked the legal standing to do so. They also argued that
the law should not have been blocked by the courts before it took
effect.

The lower courts had rejected those arguments in finding that the
law violated the Constitution's prohibition against government
establishment of religion.

State legislators enacted the law after a Jackson high school
principal, Bishop Knox, defied his superiors by allowing students to
pray over the school intercom each day. Mr. Knox was fired, prompting
an outcry throughout the state. His dismissal was later reduced to a
suspension.

The law authorizes "nonsectarian, nonproselytizing student-initiated
voluntary prayer" during school events. It was challenged by David
Ingebretsen, the executive director of the state chapter of the
American Civil Liberties Union.

Both a federal district judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
5th Circuit barred the law from taking effect, saying it put the state
in a position of endorsing religion. But the lower courts left intact a
portion of the law that authorizes student-led prayers at graduation
ceremonies.

In an earlier case from Texas, the 5th Circuit had ruled that
student-led graduation prayers in some circumstances do not violate the
Constitution.

The courts rejected portions of the law covering sporting events,
assemblies, and other compulsory or noncompulsory events.

"A state policy of prayer at school tells students that the state
wants them to pray," a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court said
in its unanimous ruling in January. "The school-prayer statute is an
unconstitutional endorsement of religion. ("Court Rejects Miss. Law Authorizing
Student-Led Prayer," Jan. 17, 1996.)

In their appeal to the Supreme Court, Mississippi officials said no
student had invoked the prayer law or engaged in prayers authorized by
the statute before it was blocked. Thus, the state argued, the lawsuit
and the court injunction that kept the law from taking effect were
premature.

Opponents replied that the state's arguments had no merit because
the law was likely to be invoked as soon as the 1994 school year
began.

The Supreme Court's refusal on Nov. 4 to hear the state's appeal in
Moore v. Ingebretsen (Case No. 96-331) means that the
justices have once again passed up an opportunity to clarify the rights
of students to deliver prayers in public school settings.

Conflicting Rulings

The high court struck down clergy-led prayers at graduation
ceremonies in the 1992 case of Lee v. Weisman. The court
in 1993 declined to review the 5th Circuit Court's ruling authorizing
student-led graduation prayers.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit had later ruled that
student-led graduation prayers violated the First Amendment, but the
high court threw out that ruling on a technicality. The student who
challenged student-led prayers in an Idaho district had graduated,
making the case moot.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit
ruled against student-led graduation prayers in a New Jersey district.
But the Black Horse Pike regional school district has decided not to
appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court, according to the board's
lawyer.

The Mississippi law went well beyond graduation prayer by
authorizing student-led prayers at a variety of school
events.

Other Cases

Separately last week, the high court:

Rejected an appeal from property owners in North Carolina who
argued that the Dare County district had illegally condemned their
land for a school athletic field. The appeal was Sakaria v.
Dare County Board of Education (No. 96-185).

Heard arguments in two cases raising questions under Title VII of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the main federal job-discrimination
law. In Robinson v. Shell Oil Co. (No. 95-1376), the
court must decide whether Title VII protects an employee from
retaliation from his former employer.

In Walters v. Metropolitan Educational Enterprises
Inc. (No. 95-259), the court will decide how employees should be
counted in a small company to determine whether Title VII takes
effect.

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